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IFWEA MONTHLY BULLETIN October - November 2004 |
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Dear Friends, Welcome to the IFWEA Bulletin. Our apologies for the long break since the last bulletin: the Secretariat has been exceptionally busy over the last few weeks.
New IFWEA Brochure A new brochure, Introducing IFWEA, is now available, which includes key information about the federation, including its constitution, membership, current Executive Committee membership, and programme. You can download copies from the web site (www.ifwea.org) in pdf or rtf format, or contact the Secretariat for copies to be sent by mail (secretariat@ifwea.org). German, Portuguese, French, Spanish and Arabic versions will be available over the next few weeks.
Organising in the Global Economy IFWEA Seminar, UK On October 9-10, approximately 100 participants from 25 countries took part in a very successful seminar at the residential centre of the Transport & General Workers’ Union in Southern England, focusing on the role of workers’ education to support and strengthen trade union organisation. There was a very full programme of speakers from a wide range of national and international organisations, and some excellent discussion on some of the key themes: organiser training, organising in Russia, China and the Arab region, the role of political education and the Global Network, organising in transnational corporations, and international education programmes for labour activists. The seminar was the launch event for the UK’s General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) new ‘Global Champions Project’. The proceedings of the seminar are currently being prepared as a tool for use by trade union educators, which will be distributed to all IFWEA members in January.
Euro-WEA Seminar and Conference / New Euro-WEA Executive Committee Running parallel with the IFWEA seminar, Euro-WEA members also took the opportunity to hold important discussions on the future of workers’ education in Europe, examining the impact of changes in the labour market, national government and EU policies, and European enlargement. These discussions were followed by the formal bi-annual conference of Euro-WEA, including the election of a new Executive Committee, including the re-election of Joël Jamet, from Culture et Liberté, France, as President. See [Euro-WEA EC Members 2004-06.rtf] for details. Given the severe financial constraints faced by Euro-WEA, the position of Secretary remains vacant. The day-to-day work will be under the supervision of the President, with administrative support provided by the IFWEA Secretariat.
IFWEA Executive Committee Meeting, October 2004 The Executive Committee met on October 12-13. The draft summary record of the meeting is available: see [EC Minutes Oct 04.rtf]
New Affiliates We welcome four new affiliations to IFWEA, as approved by the Executive Committee in October:
New Staff Member at Secretariat We welcome Crystal Dicks to the Secretariat. Formerly Project Co-ordinator for DITSELA, South Africa, Crystal is now working part-time with IFWEA, while undertaking post-graduate studies at Manchester University. Crystal is currently working on new training materials on workers’ education in the informal economy, and will be working with us next year to begin to develop the proposal for a new IFWEA international course programme next year. We hope Crystal will be joining the Secretariat full-time from June 2006. Contact crystal.dicks@ifwea.org.
IFWEA partnership with ILO on Informal Economy On November 15 IFWEA signed contracts with the ILO (Asia-Pacific)
to work on the Informal Economy, Poverty and Employment Project. The
project will be working with unions in Mongolia, Cambodia and Thailand in
developing new education programmes for organising workers in the informal
economy. Initially, IFWEA is responsible for the development of training
materials for the project, which of course will be available for
adaptation and development in other similar programmes by IFWEA affiliates.
Contact dave.spooner@ifwea.org
for details. New T&GWU & UNISON programmes approved A number of UK trade union education projects on international development have been approved for funding through the joint DFID/TUC development awareness scheme. These include two projects in which IFWEA is a partner organisation: a new T&GWU programme of courses on globalisation and trade union development in the auto industry and service/retail sectors (contact jfisher@tgwu.org.uk), and an education programme for UNISON (the UK’s largest public sector union) members on privatisation and international development (contact l.chinnery@unison.co.uk ).
New Projects for IFWEA An expanding number of projects are in various stages of development, including: Labour Rights & Development in Food & Agriculture: a partnership with the T&GWU, the International Union of Foodworkers (IUF), and IUF affiliates in Brazil, India, South Africa, Philippines and Russia, organising education programmes to strengthen union representation in key transnational corporations in food and agriculture; Organising in the Informal Economy (southern and east Africa): training in workers’ education to support informal economy organising, with partners in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe; “Combining Our Efforts”: a partnership with HomeNet Thailand, ICFTU Inter-American Regional Organisation of Workers (ORIT), Nigeria Labour Congress, Self-Employed Women’s Association (India), StreetNet International, and the Trades Union Congress of Ghana, helping to develop training and education programmes in support of informal economy organisation initiatives; IFWEA “Certificate Programme”: a joint initiative between IFWEA and the George Meany Center – National Labor College to explore the potential for a new one-year part-time programme for activists in IFWEA affiliates, on ‘organising in the global economy’, building on our experience of the International Study Circles. Hopefully, work will start in 2005 in developing the curriculum and preparation of course materials in advance of a pilot course to be delivered in 2006-07. IFWEA Seminar in Moscow: following discussion at the Executive Committee, a seminar is being planned in Moscow for June 2005, to initiate dialogue between IFWEA and Russian workers’ and trade union education institutions, and hopefully leading to the development of IFWEA activity in support of workers’ education in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
IFWEA at ICFTU Congress A considerable number of IFWEA affiliates will be attending the forthcoming 18th Congress of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), being held in Japan in December. IFWEA representation is being co-ordinated by Sahra Ryklief, IFWEA Vice-President. If you are attending the Congress, and wish to take part in IFWEA discussions, contact sahra@lrs.org.za.
IFWEA / Global Network at World Social Forum IFWEA, Solidar and Global Network partners will be well represented at the forthcoming World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in January. We will be working closely with the Global Unions, the Global Progressive Forum, and other partners in organising discussions around the themes of the ILO’s World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalisation. IFWEA will be particularly involved in discussions around the informal economy. IFWEA’s input is being co-ordinated by Juan Carlos Vargas, from PLADES, Peru. Contact: jcvargas@plades.org.pe.
Affiliation Fees and Finance There are a number of affiliates who have yet to pay their affiliation fees for 2004. The budgets for IFWEA are extremely tight, and we rely on your fees for our continued survival. For those yet to pay, please do so as soon as possible. Invoices for 2005 will be sent by mail to all affiliates in December. If you have any queries regarding your affiliation, or methods of payment, please contact the IFWEA Secretariat: anne.webley@ifwea.org. In the meantime, we wish to extend our sincere thanks to ABF (Sweden) and the Global Labour Institute for their very generous donations to the budget, and to the T&GWU and GFTU in the UK for their continued support, without which we would not be able to achieve a balanced budget this year.
Forthcoming Meetings
This Monthly Bulletin is produced from the IFWEA Secretariat. Contributions and news from affiliates and fraternal
organisations are most welcome. Please send all items to
bulletin@ifwea.org. |
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